


An Authentic Costume

by InchByInch



Category: Homeland
Genre: Domestic Bliss, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Prompt Fill, light fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 19:16:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12588752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InchByInch/pseuds/InchByInch
Summary: Celebrating Halloween in a happy, post-Season 6 AU





	An Authentic Costume

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the prompt, Gnomecat!

Fuck.

This was the third store she’d visited. It was the same story at Target and Wallmart: October 30th and all the Halloween merchandise was shoved in a corner to make way for lavish Christmas displays. Since going back to work after her maternity leave last month, she’d felt perpetually behind the ball, and here it was, the day before Halloween, and she had no costume and no decorations. Last year Carrie had been too wrapped up in the emotional and physical reality of a new and unplanned pregnancy, so once again, she’d let Maggie handle the holiday. This year, Franny was 6-years-old, in kindergarten, and she deserved a fun Halloween in her own home. So, fuck.

Carrie shook her head. The therapist she had been seeing (she bullied her husband into going, and he had responded by bullying her into going) was adamant that simply feeling guilty was not the answer. Instead of being pulled through life by guilt and shame, Carrie had committed to forging a new path. Part of that new path was trying to positive ways to enjoy connecting with other people so that guilt did not dominate her relationships. Right now, she would go home, be honest about her disappointment with herself, then let it go and give Franny a red bandanna and some overalls. Franny could be Rosie the Riveter Carrie would just explain to her that Rosie the Riveter really was as cool as Wonder Woman. What kindergartener couldn’t understand that?

Carrie was still terrible at coping with guilt, but at least she was beginning to recognize when it was a problem.

She texted her husband that she would be home soon, and was surprised to get a text back that was a picture of a lit jack-o-lantern. Maybe Halloween wouldn’t be as big a disaster as she was imagining in her mind. The thought cheered her up as she paid for the obscene amount of candy she was buying to hand out to trick-or-treaters. If the candy ran out, they would turn off the porch light early. Wouldn’t be a disaster.

When Carrie walked into the door of the Brownstone, Franny ran to her and bent to embrace her older daughter.

“Mommy, Mommy, did you see my jack-o-lantern? Daddy helped me make it! And we have such a cool costume planned. It’s a team costume, you will be in it, too!”

“A team costume?”

“Yeah, I have a Wonder Woman costume to wear to school tomorrow, but we have a special costume planned for when the four of us go trick-or-treating tomorrow.”

“The four of us?” Carrie rose to greet her husband, who was walking towards her with the baby, and she gratefully cuddled four-month-old Fara and nestled into the embrace of David’s arms. “You found her a Wonder Woman costume? I’ve been looking everywhere. You might have let me know!”

His affectionate squeeze contrasted with his words: “You could have let ME know you were out looking.”

Carrie’s immediate response was to argue that the blame for the lack of communication belonged to him but she caught herself. She didn’t want to fight right now, she just wanted to be physically close to her daughters and David. Getting Franny’s needs met wasn’t a contest, it was a joint effort. Right. Just keep reminding yourself. She breathed in her baby’s scent.

“I just asked the nanny to pick it up this morning while I was running out to work. She got the last one. You’re right, I should have let you know.” He leaned in to give her a proper apology kiss. “But, hey, at least we won’t run out of candy,” he gave her a rueful smile as he gestured to the bags she was carrying and the overflowing bags on the kitchen table.

Wow. David was always surprising her. Or, maybe they were both gaining skills at getting along with a stubborn partner. Anything was possible.

The rest of the evening was perfect. They ordered pizza and made dinner into a picnic on the living room floor before they put up all the new decorations. There were two enormous glowing eyes that hung in the front windows, making the house itself look like a demon, and lots of orange and yellow holiday lights that swirled up and down the rails to the front steps. A little bit of family crafting and they were all set for the next day.

“What’s got into you?” asked Carrie. “I never would have imagined you’d be so into celebrating Halloween.”

“I never have before,” said David. “Time to try something different.”

\--------------

Carrie and David both managed to get off work early, so that they could both hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, which was great, because it took two of them. The trick-or-treaters were non-stop! Carrie hadn’t realized it, but her neighbors took this children’s holiday seriously, and their neighborhood was a magnet for trick-or-treaters.

She also hadn’t realized how much she would enjoy the holiday herself. Franny’s excitement was contagious. She loved passing out candy, she loved the sunglasses that went with her costume, and she certainly loved eating the candy!

And David continued to surprise her. He’d bought a bowl with a mechanical skeleton hand that grabbed towards anyone taking something from the bowl. David was adorable teasing the visiting children about their “haunted candy bowl.” The children loved that bowl—even though the hand only moved a tiny bit, and they _knew_ the hand was going to move, the children still shrieked and trembled. David bantered with them and encouraged them to be brave. He was also extremely patient and encouraging with children who needed a few minutes, struggling between their desire to choose a piece of candy and their fear of the moving hand. Sometimes he told them to take two pieces. Recognizing the kids from the block, especially in costume, was beyond Carrie, but David seemed to know everyone. He was especially great with the special needs kids with their decorated wheelchairs and walkers.

Carrie could have watched him all night, but at 6:00 Max showed up to take over door duty while the little family headed out to go trick-or-treating. Their costumes were a huge success, and people exclaimed and took pictures. Carrie took a few pictures herself, impressed by the clever costumes and elaborate house decorations. Many houses had spooky silhouettes in the windows, giant spider webs festooning the walls, and enormous glowing inflated yard sculptures. Some people went all out, with costumed figures of witches, ghosts, and zombies. One of their neighbors had a fire pit where folks were gathering, and they filled up Quinn’s coffee mug in addition to handing Franny some candy.

At 7:00 everyone on the block turned off their lights and headed over to the designated party house where they continued socializing for several more hours. Carrie and David planned to stay for thirty minutes, but it was at least an hour and a half later before Carrie realized that little Fara would soon wake from where she was sleeping in the child carrier around David’s shoulders. They needed to get Franny home and to bed.

\-----------------

Later, as she lay drifting off to sleep, Carrie reflected that sometimes connecting with Dave and the girls seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Of course, that might be because she had been working at it. Her therapist was right, she needed to form a habit of relaxing and enjoying being with them.

“How did you come up with that costume idea?” she suddenly asked David.

“Seemed like the most natural thing in the world.”

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